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UTSW and Parkland were tapped to operate a new Ebola treatment center, despite their track record of infection control failures. The center will be housed in an intensive-care unit at the Methodist Campus for Continuing Care in Richardson.

A Texas health panel’s decision to entrust the operation of a new Ebola treatment center to two Dallas medical institutions with a record of infection control failures has triggered questions from concerned national health-care experts.

They want to know whether Gov. Rick Perry’s Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response even considered that recent history before installing them at the helm of the Richardson facility.

Until late last year, Parkland Memorial Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center were at the center of rare government safety intervention to try to fix what regulators called life-threatening breakdowns in infection prevention and other practices throughout Parkland, Dallas’ safety-net hospital for the poor. UTSW manages clinical care at the facility.

Regulatory violations have ranged from poor hand washing to filthy patient rooms with overflowing trash bins, excrement and blood. Turf battles between the two organizations over money, physician staffing and their divergent missions also have been factors in jeopardizing patient care over the years, we found in our own 2013 investigation.

But state officials aren’t saying whether the regulatory problems or the stormy partnership came into play during the rapid creation of the Ebola center in recent days.

Perry’s Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which helps coordinate the task force’s efforts, declined to answer questions about the decision, only giving the institutions a vote of confidence.

“They already have been training for the strict infection control procedures needed to handle a patient with Ebola,’’ a spokeswoman said.

Dr. Ashish Jha, associate professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, said the public needs an explanation.

“This track record of problems is of course concerning,’’ Jha said “A big question is have they (Parkland and UTSW) really put these problems behind them, and do they understand what caused them? It’s absolutely important for them to address this publicly.’’

“You would assume that the task force recognized the recent history and concluded that the two organizations will be able to work beyond past differences,’’ said Ranga Ramanujam a Vanderbilt University professor who studies organizational factors related to patient safety. He wants to know more about the decision process, he said.

Federal and state health regulators have yet to determine whether they will investigate why Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas didn’t hospitalize a Liberian man when he first entered its ER last week.

Instead, Thomas Eric Duncan, whose home country is a hot spot for Ebola outbreaks, was released with antibiotics. It was only when he returned to the hospital two days later that he was diagnosed with the often fatal disease – the first such case identified in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention characterizes Liberia as “active” for Ebola transmission, and it’s among the West African countries hardest hit. Texas Health Presbyterian officials said Tuesday that they were prepared for an Ebola patient. In a news conference, a hospital epidemiologist said the hospital has “had a plan in place for some time now in the event of a patient presenting with possible Ebola.”

But questions now abound about how meticulously caregivers screened Duncan for symptoms and assessed his risk as a Liberian.

“The immediate focus at this time is on managing the situation with this specific patient,” said David Wright, deputy regional administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the primary regulator of federally funded hospitals. “We need to let things settle down before determining what, if any, actions we may take.”

71-year-old Sandra Mercado suffered multiple fractures to her foot after Parkland staffers forced her out of her wheelchair.

For the third time since Parkland Memorial Hospital promised the federal government it had reformed its psychiatric services, staffers have endangered or harmed a patient – this time by forcing a disabled elderly woman out of her wheelchair, leading to several bone breaks, according to a new regulatory report.

“I told them I couldn’t walk,” said Sandra Mercado, 71, referring to psych technicians and a nurse who “screamed” at her to get out of her wheelchair so they could move her to a bed.

Hours later other staffers found Mercado crying out in pain and discovered that she had multiple foot fractures, according to hospital records and an inspection report triggered by a Dallas Morning News investigation. The report said nursing supervision breakdowns resulted in an “unsafe” transfer.

Parkland officials, including CEO Dr. Fred Cerise, have repeatedly declined to discuss the June incident with The News, even though Mercado’s family agreed to a privacy waiver.

The latest case marks at least the third finding of psychiatric-care failures at Parkland over the last seven months. It comes only two weeks after federal officials threatened to cut off $400 million in annual funding to the hospital for jeopardizing another patient: a man discharged to a homeless shelter in a wheelchair instead of to a care facility, despite multiple fractures he received during a suicide attempt. And earlier this year, Parkland psych staffers gagged a patient with a toilet paper roll and covered her head with a sheet, leading to two firings and two resignations.

Last year, federal officials concluded that Parkland had satisfied nearly 500 requirements under a rare government oversight agreement to overhaul dangers throughout the hospital, including eliminating abuse and care lapses in its psychiatric services.

A Legislative report says abuse, neglect persist in state-run living centers for the disabled.

Parkland Memorial Hospital isn’t the only Texas institution still facing a serious reckoning over mistreatment of the mentally disabled.

A new report by the Sunset Advisory Commission – citing “skyrocketing costs and questionable quality of care” – hammers the system of state-run residential disability centers for its failure to do enough to improve treatment and conditions.

The report says “abuse, neglect and exploitation” remains one of the most persistent issues in the centers, with thousands of cases confirmed between 2010 and 2013.

The system is so troubled, in fact, that the legislative panel recommends steps to ultimately shutter six centers. The Legislature is expected to tackle the issues in its 2015 session.

As with Parkland, the long-term care facilities have been operating for years under the gun of federal oversight; in the case of the centers, it’s a U.S. Department of Justice enforcement order. In 2009, the agency found serious widespread abuse and neglect, including some deaths, striking a settlement with Texas to overhaul the system.

Parkland staffers defending themselves in a civil rights lawsuit are now disputing findings of the 2011 regulatory report that sparked a massive government crackdown on dangers at the hospital.

Parkland Memorial Hospital is still grappling with a cultural demon: staff violence against mentally ill patients.

The reality check has surfaced on two fronts, we revealed in Sunday’s edition.

Our main story described how in March a psychiatric ER nurse shoved a toilet paper roll into a patient’s mouth while another staffer covered her head with a sheet. “Blood stains can be seen on the toilet tissue” after removal, said a police report that drew on surveillance camera footage.

Texas regulations clearly prohibit force that interferes with a patient’s ability to breathe or communicate. Even more, the incident comes three years after the seminal abuse case of Parkland psych patient George Cornell.

The federal investigative report detailing illegal physical restraint used on him shortly before he died sparked a sweeping safety crackdown, a virtual government takeover, and repeated pledges by Parkland to develop a safe, compassionate culture for psych ER patients. Officials also promised to retrain or get rid of problem employees.

Yet we found that the same supervising nurse regulators faulted for failing to monitor Cornell’s restraint – Sherwin De Guzman – was at the scene of the recent gagging incident. Parkland officials released a statement on Monday saying the staff involved in the March case had been trained on safe use of restraints, and called their actions “unacceptable.” Two were fired, two resigned and a fifth received “corrective action.”

Lake Whitney Medical Center, the sole remaining hospital operated by embattled chain owner Dr. Tariq Mahmood, has been mired in turmoil in recent days as employee paychecks bounced, the top administrator left, and the chief of the medical staff stepped down.

At the same time, a team from the Texas Department of State Health Services has been on site investigating quality of care.

The events come on the heels of Gov. Rick Perry’s order just over a week ago to conduct a comprehensive investigation of Mahmood’s operations following my July 14 report chronicling dangers to patients and potential fraud in his hospital system over the last four years. Mahmood is under indictment for insurance billing fraud. He has pleaded not guilty.

Details about what’s happened inside the hospital 30 miles north of Waco are still hazy. The interim manager has not returned my phone call from earlier today, and Whitney’s mayor has not responded to my messages.

State health officials are withholding comment as their investigation continues.

Government health inspectors are back at Parkland Memorial Hospital today — for at least the third time in recent weeks — as part of their ongoing top-to-bottom survey to determine whether the safety net hospital is finally safe.

As with past visits, federal and state regulators are staying mum about their findings, per standard procedure. So are Parkland officials.

The hospital’s future hinges greatly on whether it can pass the test following nearly two years of work and an estimated $75 million spent on improvements to satisfy hundreds of government mandates. If Parkland fails this inspection phase, it will lose $400 million a year in federal health-care funding critical to its operation.

Federal regulators are giving themselves an extra four months to perform a surprise do-or-die inspection of Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Under the original safety oversight agreement with the public hospital, struck in late 2011, Parkland was supposed to undergo such a survey some time before April 30, 2013.

It could still happen any day now. But regulators recently realized that not enough time was built into the agreement to allow for the element of surprise, said David Wright, deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

“We need that final act [inspection] of the process to be shrouded in mystery so we have the most accurate view of the progress possible,” he said. Extending the time frame to late August makes it much more difficult for Parkland to predict when the survey will occur.

Parkland stands to lose hundreds of millions in annual federal funds vital to its survival if it doesn’t pass the survey, which could take up to two weeks to complete, CMS has warned.

Last week, I reported that Parkland has implemented 471 of 499 safety mandates. But the hospital is still grappling with correcting many problems such as unsanitary conditions, inconsistent doctor coverage for psychiatric patients and delays in efficiently moving patients through the hospital. The federal overseers said Parkland isn’t yet ready for an inspection.

Parkland is the largest hospital in the nation ever to operate under the oversight of federally installed safety monitors. That program is still highly experimental, and modifications to the agreement have to be made along the way to preserve the intent and integrity of the process, Wright said.

“Everyone is better served, including the community, to make sure we have enough time to go in and do a thorough investigation,’’ Wright said.

Parkland officials, who signed off on the agreement modification Tuesday, released a statement this morning saying, “The amendment allows CMS the element of surprise for its survey which is appropriate …Parkland should be ready for that level of scrutiny on any day at any hour.”

In an interview this week with the Tribune, Shannon was quoted as saying he was “proud of some of the accomplishments we made in Parkland” during his 2007-2012 tenure. He went on to say:

“But clearly we had some spectacular medical failures. And no one is proud of that, no one’s happy about that. … I’m very sorry that I didn’t see them across the finish line. They’ll be going through a re-survey, and I’m quite sure they will be successful this time.”

Shannon told the Tribune that he had worked closely with safety monitors installed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services after a 2011 inspection found patients were in “immediate jeopardy.” By April, Parkland is scheduled to undergo a re-inspection to test whether patient-care corrections are working.

Update at 1:13 p.m. Federal regulators just confirmed that Renaissance Hospital Terrell has been shut down in the wake of recent patient-care breakdowns that included two deaths.

“There are no staff or patients in the facility, and it is not providing any care at all,” according to a statement CMS sent me moments ago.

Agency officials are now trying to notify Kaufman County residents that they have several care options within 25 miles of Terrell that I’ve listed at the bottom of this post in bold.

Original item at 12:17 p.m. In a rare action, federal and state health regulators are moving to shut down Renaissance Hospital Terrell for recklessly endangering patients, including nursing failures they say led to two deaths.

As of midnight, the lone hospital serving Terrell, southeast of Dallas in Kaufman County, became only the ninth hospital in the U.S. during the last three years to see its funding cut off by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, records show. And it’s only the fifth time since 2007 the Texas Department of State Health Services has moved to revoke a hospital’s license, that agency says.

We’re still trying to piece together the facts. But a January inspection report I obtained from CMS shows the 102-bed hospital – owned by RH Terrell Management LLC, as listed in state records – has violated 15 safety regulations in recent months, placing patients in the most serious threat category, “immediate jeopardy.’’